Hijack
by AerialAwakening
Summary: ***MOCKINGJAY SPOILERS*** Katniss is  relatively  safe in 13, but what about Peeta? He's been taken by the Capitol, and in addition to being tortured, he is being hijacked. Rated T for violence and possible language
1. Chapter 1

I moan softly as the tracker jacker venom enters my veins. The attendant from the Capitol swivels my chair towards a large screen. It's playing some kind of movie and at first I don't understand what it is. But then I realize.

It's my first Games.

My first instinct is to run as far away from here as possible. But as my wrists and legs pull at the restraints that bind me to this chair, they send a small shock through my body. I wince in pain and shut my eyes. I will not watch this.

"Eyes open!" yells the attendant. I pretend not to hear him. "Eyes open!" I feel his hand crack across my face, but I still refuse to open my eyes. Then I feel his hot breath on my face. "I didn't want to have to do this, but it seems I have no other choice." I hear him click a button at the bottom of my chair.

"Ah!" I cry out in pain as the chair sends an electric current through my body, but I keep my eyes closed.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" the attendant asks in a menacing tone. I don't gratify him with an answer. He hits the button again. I try to keep silent, but a small groan escapes my lips. I open my eyes.

"There now, was that so hard?"

I glare at him. But then I realize the tracker venom is taking effect. The corners of my vision are blurring and everything looks vivid and shiny. The attendant forces my head toward the screen. It's a portion of the recap, starting with the sounding of the gong. It mostly features Katniss, her fighting for that backpack, dodging Clove's knife and running into the woods. I watch in agony as she runs from the huge wall of flames chasing after her. Is chased into the tree with the tracker jackers.

"She tried to kill you." It's the first words the attendant has spoken in an hour.

"W-what?" I manage to get out through the pain. I haven't started hallucinating yet, so I guess they didn't put a lot of venom in me.

"She tried to kill you with the stunt she pulled in that tree."

At that moment on the screen, the nest drops from the tree an explodes onto the Career camp. I watch as we all scatter, running to the lake, not bothering to check who's with us and who isn't.

"No, she didn't know what I was doing. She thought—"

"She knew the whole time."

I jerk my head up to look at him.

"She knew exactly what you were doing. She knew your whole plan. She took advantage of the fact that you loved her. And she tried to kill you anyway. She—"

"NO!" I won't believe it. I refuse to believe a word he says.

"Yes," he replies. "She hated you. She still does. She tried to kill you. She wanted you dead. She still wants you dead."

"No!" I yell again, banging my head against the back of the chair. "Katniss wouldn't do that. That's not the kind of person she is!"

"She's not a person!" the attendant shrieks, inches from my face. "She's a mutt. Created by the Capitol. She's programmed to kill you. It's her only purpose. She failed in the first Games, and in the Second. So now she's with Thirteen, planning your death as we speak."

"No," I whisper. It can't be true. "She _saved _me in the Games. She was determined to keep me alive. The—the berries. That was so we could both live."

"So she could kill you herself!" he shouts. "And she did nothing but try to kill you throughout the Games!"


	2. Chapter 2

This time as I'm strapped to the chair, they remove my prosthetic. I don't expect them to give it back, as last time I used it to hit the attendant (whose name I have learned to be Wills). I clamp my mouth shut as the tracker jacker venom surges through the IV in my arm. Wills points to the screen and hits a button on a remote. It comes to life and Wills hits another button to fast forward. I recognize the scene. Cato is running towards me and Katniss, being chased by the mutts. The moment Katniss realizes what's going on, she bolts. I chase after her, trying to keep up, but falling behind quickly.

"She left you for the mutts. She knew you couldn't outrun them."

"No, that's not right," I protest.

"Your death would have been slow in the hands of the mutts. You saw what they did to District Two."

"No she—" But I can't think of an excuse. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, not sparing a thought for me.

I watch as she reaches the Cornucopia, only then looking back at me.

"Go, Katniss! Go!" On screen I'm urging her to climb up the horn and leave me behind. But why?

_Because you love her,_ I remind myself. But do I?

She climbs up the side of the horn. When I reach the Cornucopia, she yells at me to climb.

_See, she cares about you. She's trying to save your life._

She loads an arrow and lets it fly; it burrows deep into the neck of the first mutt.

"She was aiming for you," says Wills.

I look up at him. "No, she wasn't. Katniss never misses."

"No! She wouldn't do that! She was trying to protect me! She shot the mutt!" I protest.

"By accident! She was supposed to hit you!"

"If she had wanted to hit me, she would have," I argue.

"She was exhausted and delirious," he insists.

"She's too good an archer!" I shout.

"Of course she is," Wills reasons after a moment of thought, "she's a mutt. How else could she have such accurate aim otherwise?"

I think about this for a moment, but the venom is clouding my thoughts. I can't seem to think of any other explanation. This would make sense on paper, if I didn't know all she's done to protect me.

"She hates you," says Wills.

"No." But it's barely audible.

"Don't resist the truth."

"No! No! It's not true!" I scream, if only to convince myself that my words are true.

"Well then," Wills drawls.

I shriek as more venom enters my veins. On screen, I am climbing up the Cornucopia and Katniss reaches down to grab my arm.

Then suddenly, I am no longer in the room in the Capitol.

I am in the Games.


	3. Chapter 3

Katniss is gripping my wrist and I try to scuttle up the side of the Cornucopia.

"Katniss!" I yell.

"I've got you," she says.

I look up into her eyes. Her beautiful, grey eyes… And there is a gleam in them I haven't seen before. Almost… devilish. A smirk is playing at her lips. I furrow my brow in confusion.

"Katniss, I—"

"Goodbye, Peeta," she whispers, so quietly that I can barely hear it.

"I—What?"

And with that, she drops me.

I try to find hold a hold on the horn, but I can't seem to get a grip. I hit the ground hard, the impact blowing the all the air out of my lungs. Then the mutts are looming over me. I shut my eyes tight, not wanting to see the faces of the past tributes. I cry out as one of the mutts slices at my chest. I feel another gash open on my arm, and yet another across my cheek. In the distance I hear a chuckle. Katniss.

I open my eyes and twist my head around to look at her. She's sitting atop the Cornucopia, laughing at my pain. Enjoying it. Then she lunges forward and pushes Cato off the horn. He falls to the ground in a heap, but almost immediately collects himself. This distracts some of the mutts, and they leave me alone for a moment. I'm only just able to stand up before another one lunges at me, knocking me to the ground. I hit my head against a rock, and as pain runs down my spine, darkness floods my vision.

It must only be seconds later when I come to, but I can count at least three new wounds, and I can feel a trickle of warmth from behind my hair. The only thing that comforts me, oddly enough, is Cato's screams. If only I can outlast him, I can go home to District Twelve and Katniss, Katniss who—tried to kill me. And as time will tell, just might succeed.

I hear the tear of flesh before feel it. I scream, so loud that it rips at my throat, as my leg is torn from its socket. Surely there is no worse pain in the world as losing a limb. Because I can already feel myself losing consciousness. I refuse to look at the stump that is now my leg, for fear that the sight will send me into the black. The sky above me is spinning and I can barely form a coherent thought.

Suddenly I hear a cannon go off. I turn my head to Cato, or at least what's left of him, lying on the ground, an arrow through his neck. As if called by some other purpose, the mutts retreat in a uniform line. I watch them leave, fading in and out of consciousness, until I hear a small thump beside. Katniss must have jumped down. My suspicions are confirmed when she straddles me, careful not to get any blood on her pants, and leans in close, her hair forming a curtain around her face, so that the cameras cannot see what she is saying to me. I wonder briefly why her hair isn't in its usual braid, but the sound of her voice cuts me off.

"Peeta," she whispers, barely audible. "Poor little Peeta." She looks at me in mock pity. "Surely you didn't think any of that romance was real. I was just—"

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you—the tributes of District Twelve!" Claudius Templesmith's voice booms throughout the arena.

Katniss leans in closer. "The only reason you are still alive is because all of Panem would hate me if I let you die, let alone killed you myself. They couldn't have their icon killing her star-crossed lover, not after they were told they could both live. But mark my words, Mellark, had I found you before that announcement was made, you'd have been dead weeks ago."

And then her lips find mine. After the initial shock, it's all I can do not to push her off of me. How repulsed I am by her now. I may have loved her once, but now… she is disgusting. She deceived me, deluded me into thinking that she loved me back.

I feel the cold claws of the hovercraft encircle my body and I am lifted into the air. As soon as I am deposited on the cold metal floor, I am surrounded by doctors. A glass plate rises between me and Katniss. I can barely hear her pounding on the glass, shouting my name.

"Peeta!" A team of doctors restrains her. "No, I have to get to him. I have orders, he cannot live!" She kicks one of the doctors in the groin and he falls to the ground. "You can tell everyone he lost too much blood!" They somehow manage to stick an IV line in her arm and she slumps to the ground, immediately rendered unconscious.

"She won't get to you," one of the doctors assures me.

And then I am overtaken by darkness.

"…hallucinating," I hear Wills' voice.

I barely dare to open my eyes, but the glint in Katniss' eye is ingrained in my head, and the only way to rid myself of the image is to look at something else.

"Welcome back," Wills sneers.

The room is spinning, but if anything I'm glad to be out of the arena. I don't reply.

"So where did you go?" he asks, this time with genuine curiosity.

I still refuse to respond.

He slaps me, which only makes the room spin faster. "I said, where did you go?" he growls.

"The arena," I choke out.

"And?"

I stare at him blankly.

"What happened?" he clarified.

"Can I go back to my cell?"

The question catches him off guard. "Your cell is currently in use. You won't be having that kind of luxury for a quite a while." Before this information can sink in, he goes back to the earlier topic. "So what happened?"

"Katniss, she—" I stop myself before I can go further. "None of that was real. It was a hallucination. From the venom."

"That," Wills articulates slowly, "was not a hallucination. It was a flashback."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Sorry this chapter is so short! I was going to write more, but it just felt like an appropriate place to end it. And it's almost 3 am. But I promise a larger chapter tomorrow! Er, well, later, since it's technically already tomorrow…**

"No," I say. "That's not how we won. The—the berries. Katniss saved us both with the berries."

Wills gives me a confused look. "What berries?"

"The berries!" I shout. "The nightlock! They wouldn't let us have two victors so Katniss suggested we both—" The rest of my sentence is choked off by the electric current that runs up my spine.

"That is a lie," says Wills. "Stop telling lies Peeta, it will only get you hurt." He takes my silence as permission to continue. "Now why don't you tell me what really happened?"

"W-what?" I stammer.

"What did you just see?"

"Nothing real." I am rewarded with another jolt of electricity.

"I have seen many people have flashbacks before, and I can assure you, that was a flashback. Now tell me, what did you see?"

I grimace. "She dropped me. Off the Cornucopia. And the mutts attacked me and they tore of my leg, but I know that can't be true because—" I stop short. I look down. I only have one leg. When I look to my left, I can see a prosthetic leaning up against the wall.

"Continue."

I swallow hard before obeying. "She shot Cato. And then she… she told me it was all an act. That if it weren't for that rule change she would have killed me. And then in the hovercraft, she was screaming about her orders to kill me, and then. And then… Then she—" By now my breathing is ragged. I feel lightheaded and dizzy and it takes me a moment to realize I am hyperventilating. I take five deep breaths before continuing. "But it can't be real… she wouldn't intentionally do something to hurt me."

"Oh really?" asks Wills. "What about the tracker jacker nest?"

"We weren't in an alliance."

"But then what about—"

"Nothing you say about what happened in the arena will convince me!" I yell.

A strange look crosses his face. "Well then, maybe I'll just have to show you." He hits a couple of buttons on his remote.

I'm looking at the woods that surround District Twelve. I can just make out two figures. The camera zooms in and I realize that it is Katniss and Gale. A shiver runs up my spine.

I can't hear what they are saying, but they seem to be talking animatedly. And then it happens.

Gale leans in and kisses her.

My mind can barely process this. I am so filled with love, hate, and confusion.

"Anything she ever said about loving you is a lie."

Now that is something I can believe.


	5. Chapter 5

"Now why don't we try this again?" asks Wills. "What do you think happened in the arena? Give me a quick summary of the entire Games."

This time I don't hesitate before answering. There is no way I'm going to be able to bare another shock. And maybe he can give me some answers. "I teamed up with the Careers. And they found Katniss and chased her into the tree. She dropped the nest on us, and we ran to the lake. Then I…" I struggle for a moment, trying to sort out what's real. "I found her and told her to run. And Cato cut me on my leg… Is that how I lost it?"

"No."

"Then how—"

"Keep going," Wills orders.

I comply. "I hid. And after the announcement, she found me. And helped me. She went to the feast to get the medicine for my leg. And then… we went to the lake. And the mutts chased us. And…"

"And what?"

I can't figure this part out. What's real? What isn't? "I don't know."

"Conflicting images?" I nod. "Why don't you tell me both stories, and I'll tell you which one is the right one. I've watched these Games many times."

It doesn't sound too unreasonable. "Well one of them seems really… vivid. It kind of… glimmers, I guess. The other is a lot more dull."

"The dull one is probably a dream. Start with that one."

"The mutts came at us, and we climbed Cornucopia. Katniss grabbed my hand and… I think in this one she helped me up." Wills has already started shaking his head. I continue. "Cato tried to strangle me but Katniss shot his hand and the mutts attacked him and then she shot him. And then they said we could only have one winner. So Katniss pulled out the nightlock and right before we could eat them, we were both declared victors."

Wills is silent. He paces around my chair, a worried expression on his face. It is quite a while before he speaks. "What lies she has fed you! None of what you said is even remotely close to what happened."

"No, that's the true one!" I blurt out, not thinking. "I know—I know that one is real. The other one was just a hallucination!"

I bite my tongue, expecting another electric current, but I instead get more venom. I think I would have preferred the electricity.

"What's the other version?"

The tracker venom has slurred his words together. I can barely form a comprehensible thought. Everything around me is sparkling. My prosthetic morphs into a tree. Wills' face twists and is suddenly grotesquely deformed. Then it becomes a face I know very well.

"Katniss?" I whisper.

A surprised look crosses her face, then she shrugs and leans in close.

"Peeta," she breathes. Then she punches me in the gut.

I let out a small grunt of pain, then look up at her, incredulous. "Katniss, why—"

"You're despicable. You deserve to die," she snarls. "But not a quick death. Oh no, your death will be slow and painful. I will make sure of that." She punches me again, this time on the nose. I hear a crack, and suddenly my mouth is full of blood. I spit it out, onto her face, and the look in her eyes is truly terrifying.

"You're going to regret that."

I shout out as a jolt of electricity runs through my body. I wait for it to stop, but it doesn't. Just one long, continuous burst of energy. Just when I am about to pass out, it stops. I force my eyes open to look at her.

"Katniss…" My voice is hoarse from screaming.

She smiles. "Mellark." She lunges forward and grabs my neck, instantaneously cutting off my air supply. I fight against my restraints, but to no avail. I ignore the small shocks that nip at my arms and legs, just trying to free myself from her grip. But the world spins faster and faster, and I can no longer feel anything. As my eyes close, I can only just hear her whisper menacingly, "Goodbye."

"Wake up!" I feel a hand slap me across the face. I grudgingly open my eyes to see three Wills' swimming before me. I shake my head to clear it, by now I see four of him.

"Good."

"What happened?" I demand.

"Calm down, Mellark."

I wince. "Katniss… she was here. Or was that just a halluc—"

"Do _not _say the word hallucination!" shouts Wills. Then he composes herself. "Katniss had a team of ten soldiers from District Thirteen to help break her in here. She injected me with the tracker venom and before I fell unconscious, I saw her strangle you. She also broke your nose," he explains.

"No, that wasn't real, it wasn't real," I chant, more to myself than to Wills.

"Wasn't it?" He holds out his left arm. At the crook of his elbow is a messy puncture mark.

"You could have done that yourself."

"What about your nose? I was unconscious, do you suppose I hit you myself?" He crosses to table in the back corner of the room and brings me a hand mirror. My face is coated in blood. I am so mesmerized at what captivity and torture has done to my appearance that I barely notice when a little venom trickles in through my IV line.

The effect is immediate. Everything suddenly starts to shimmer and Wills directs my attention to the screen. What I see makes me drop the mirror onto the floor, and it shatters into a million tiny pieces.

It's Katniss and I standing by the lake. I only just manage to catch a knife flying into the water. And Katniss has an arrow pointed directly at me.

"She wants you dead. She's tried and failed too many times." He motions to the screen.

Katniss, as if suddenly remembering where she is, lowers her bow. Her words sound slurred and I can't make them out, but I assume she's making an excuse as to why she almost killed me a moment ago.

"She threw the knife out of your hand, leaving you defenseless. It was only at the last second that she remembered she shouldn't kill you. The audience wouldn't have liked that."

"No…I don't think that's what happened…"

"Then what did happen?" shouts Wills. "Why don't you try to feed me some cock-and-bull story about how she saved your life, that she loves you? She's not capable of love. Muttations are only capable of hate and deception. They can only do what they are programmed to do! Katniss Everdeen is better known to the scientists in the Capitol as the Ultimate Muttation. Think, a mutt who looks and thinks like a human, but has deadly accuracy and ability to kill viciously. Capable of deceiving even the cleverest of humans, of which, Mellark, you are not."

"But…" I am attempting to find a better explanation for this, but I'm coming up with nothing. But I'm ready to grasp at any straws that appear. "Her family… She has a mom, and a sister."

"Who look nothing like her. They are not her biological family. She _has _no biological family. It's all a ploy, Peeta. She tricked you and lied to you about everything. She tried to kill you on multiple occasions. Get it through your thick head!"

I gasp as a shock runs up my spine. What Wills is trying to say is beginning to make more and more sense, but I cannot bring myself to believe it. I know, I know I love her. But I can't seem to feel it.


	6. Chapter 6

"Name!" Wills barks. This is routine by now.

"Peeta Mellark," I whisper.

"Name!" he shouts again.

"Peeta Mellark." I only manage to raise my voice by a fraction.

"Birthplace?"

"District Twelve."

"Feelings about Katniss Everdeen."

This question is new. A confused wave of emotions comes over me. Love, hate, admiration, distrust. But there is one consistent theme: hopelessness.

"I don't know," I choke out.

I barely notice the venom enter my veins, so used to it as I am now.

"Well why don't you know?" he growls menacingly.

"Because…" Apparently I'm taking too long, because he sends a bolt of electricity up my spine. "Because I don't know what to believe."

"I'll show you what to believe."

He clicks a button on a remote. Katniss is outside the cave doing g-d knows what. My eyelids begin to droop after a minute or so, but Wills slaps me across the face, promptly waking me up. A silver parachute suddenly fills the screen. Katniss grabs it, and opens the vile it contains. She apparently is none too happy with its contents, because she is about to chuck it, but then she stops herself, as if an idea has suddenly struck her upside the head.

"It's poison."

I shake my head without looking away from the screen. "Sleep syrup," I argue.

Another drop of venom enters through my IV. "It was a lethal dose."  
"That small vile?" I ask.

"Highly concentrated. A sleep you would never wake up from."

Katniss is literally spoon-feeding me the sleep syrup in some kind of meal she has cooked. I want to scream at myself not to eat it, but of course, to no avail. By the time I realize what's going on, it's too late. She clamps my nose shut and forces me to swallow. I try to vomit it up, but it's a struggle to stay awake. I watch as I manage to get out the tiniest drop, and then fall unconscious.

"You would have died had you not managed to choke that up."

I try so hard to excuse what she did, but I can't. She tried to kill me. On the pretense of saving my life. How twisted must she be to do something like that?

I hate her. I hate her so much. But just a small part of me says no. That she did what she thought was best. That there is some redeeming quality in this person. No. Not person. Mutt. But do I really believe that?


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N I know, I know. I haven't updated in about a year. I have no excuse. So to make it up to you, I have two chapters in a row!**

Wills doesn't show up this morning. At least, I think it's morning. I can't really tell anymore. All I know is that when I open my eyes, he is not there. I bide my time, waiting for him to show up. But after what seems like hours of waiting, he is still not there. I want to use this time to sleep, but I know if I do, I'll just have horrendous nightmares. But what's the difference anyway? Nightmares are no longer reserved for sleeping hours. Every moment of every day is a nightmare. Life is a nightmare.

That word strikes a chord and suddenly I am filled with a memory.

It's during the victory tour, I think. Night time. I'm half asleep in Katniss' bed, my arms around her body. For once, she is not tossing and turning. She sleeps soundly. I lean over and whisper in her ear.

"I love you, Katniss."

For a moment, I think I see a small smile form on her lips. But when I look again, it is gone. I lie there, staring at the ceiling until I am lulled to sleep by the sound of her breathing and the pounding of her heartbeat. When I wake, I pull her closer in my arms. She opens her eyes.

"No nightmares," I say. She agrees.

That's where the memory ends. I can't remember what happened after that. But this one peaceful memory gives me a sliver of hope. Maybe she is not the mutt Wills claims she is. Maybe she is still the girl of my dreams and memories, fierce and brave, but honest and true. Maybe, just maybe there is hope.

And then Wills slams the door open.

He has a large cut across his cheek and he's walking with a limp. I am about to ask him what happened, but before I can get a word in, he shocks me. I close my eyes and grit my teeth, wondering what I did wrong, trying not to scream. When it stops, I slump down in the seat that has been my home for the past… well, however long I've been in here. Then he walks over to my IV line and pushes the plunger filled with venom as deep as it can go. The effect is immediate. But he's not done. He fills the syringe again and releases even more venom into my bloodstream. Then he does something insane. He undoes my leg and arm restraints. Then he leaves without a word.

The door closes with a bang and it sounds like a gun shot. I close my eyes, trying to hold off the hallucinations. It works for a moment, but then I feel something nipping at my foot. But that's impossible. Because my leg is gone.

But when I look down, it isn't. I stare incredulously at my leg, which seems to have suddenly reattached itself. It doesn't make sense. I don't understand. Yet it is right there.

And then I realize what's wrong. There are bugs crawling all over it. I jump up and try to stamp my foot down, but it doesn't reach the floor. The bugs begin to crawl up toward my body, covering my arms and chest, nearly reaching my face. I shout out and they crawl into my mouth. I gag. I try to spit them out, but they won't go away. So I do the only thing I can think of. I shove my finger down my throat and vomit up whatever was in my stomach. Thankfully, the ants leave with it. But that doesn't stop the rest of them from crawling all over my arms. I turn my head and spot something in the corner. At first, I can't make out what it is; it grows and shrinks and turns too quickly for me to grasp its shape. But then I realize it's a sword. I run towards it, but for some reason, my newly recovered leg won't work and I fall flat on my face. I try to stand back up, but the room is pitching and turning and I can't find my balance. I manage to crawl my way to the sword, but when I get there, it is no longer a sword. It is a sheath of arrows. I shriek and try to force myself backward. My flailing sends the bugs flying off me. They congeal in the corner next to the arrows, and I somehow get myself back in the chair. The mass of bugs slowly rises and grows and I watch it take a human shape. More specifically, the shape of Katniss.

She's on me in a moment. I kick out at her and send her flying backwards. Then I get to my feet and launch myself toward the arrows. If I can get there before her, then she can't kill me with them. If I get there before her, then maybe I can kill her before she kills me. She jumps onto my back, and I fall to the ground, but I stretch out my hand and reach the arrows before she does. She screams and slams my head into the floor. Stars flood my vision and my forehead throbs. I can just make out a small puddle of blood on the floor. I look at my outstretched arm and see that the arrows are now a long, metal bat. I swing it toward Katniss, but she jumps away at the last moment and I hit myself instead. When the bat comes in contact with my skin, it shatters like glass into a million pieces. The glass rains down on me and I watch as it molds together back into a bat. I grab for it, intending to fight Katniss to the death. But when I touch it, it writhes and squirms, and suddenly I am holding a snake. It wraps around my arms and slowly climbs up toward my face. I don't dare move a muscle. But then it wraps itself around my neck and squeezes. All the air is forced out of my lungs, and I try to catch a breath, but to no avail. I clutch at my neck, trying to pry the snake off of me, but it won't budge. I start seeing spots and just before my vision goes dark, I can hear Katniss chuckle.

When I open my eyes, Katniss is gone. I look frantically around, in case she is hiding, but she seems to have disappeared. I am filled with relief, but there is another emotion that takes me a moment to place. Hatred. Wills was right all along. Katniss tried to kill me over and over in the games, and she just tried again. She is a mutt. An abomination. She must be destroyed. And I must be the one to do it.


	8. Chapter 8

I suffer through the rest of the day, rolling and writhing on the floor, trying to escape the nightmares that grip me. I eventually fall into a fitful sleep, filled with more horrors. I can't tell what is real and what is not; I scream until my throat runs dry. I claw at my arms, my legs, my face, trying to rid myself of these horrible visions. Eventually, I give up, resigning myself to the suffering, waiting to die. Because that is surely what is next for me. No human can suffer this much trauma and come out alive. So I wait for death.

It doesn't come. When the visions finally stop, I am lying on the floor. I can't open my eyes, but I feel someone's breath on my face. I try to croak out a sentence, but my throat and mouth won't cooperate. Then he speaks. I can't understand his words, but I can tell it is Wills. I slowly pry my eyes open and try to listen to what he is saying, but I can't make heads or tails of it. I start to check out, but before I can, he grabs me under the armpits and lifts me to my fit. I attempt to hold my weight, but I nearly crumple to the floor. Wills says something incomprehensible, then drags me to the other side of the room where my prosthetic lies on the floor, dented and covered with blood. I briefly wonder if it is mine or Katniss'. I hope it is hers. She deserves any pain I can inflict upon her.

Wills bends over, still somehow supporting my weight, and fits it onto the stump that was once my leg. Then he lugs me toward the door. I furrow my brow in surprise. Apparently we're going somewhere.

I try to remember what turns we take and how far we travel, but my mind isn't working properly. I am still groggy and beaten. Every inch of me aches. My hearing eventually starts to return to normal and I am able to choke out a question to Wills.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

He glares at me. "Weren't you listening? I'm taking you to shower. You stink."

I am skeptical, but honestly, there is nothing I can do about it. I barely have enough energy to keep my eyes open, let alone run away.

It doesn't matter anyway, because when we reach our destination, it seems Wills was telling the truth. The room we have come to is a small bathroom. He strips me down and I don't have the energy to complain. And quite frankly, I don't care. As long as I get clean, I don't care how it gets done. Wills is right. I stink. My hair is caked with blood. My arms seem to be missing patches of skin. Bruises cover almost every inch of my body. Even if it means I'll have a larger capacity for more torture, I don't care. I need a bath.

He hauls me into the tub and turns the knob. Surprisingly, the water comes not from the faucet at my eye level, but from one overhead. It takes me a moment to realize that it is a shower. I turn to say something to Wills, but he is gone from the room. I wait patiently for his return, but when the door opens, it is not him. It is a small woman with a face like a rat. She is carrying a bar of soap. Apparently it is her job to get me clean since I obviously can't do it myself. She scrubs me down, and I try to enjoy what will probably be the last moment of peace in my life.

When she finishes, she helps me stand up and wraps a towel around me so I can dry off. Then she leaves the room. Wills returns almost immediately with clean clothing. He helps me into it, and then we're off. But I don't recognize the hallway we're walking through. It's foreign territory, but it is somehow familiar. It isn't until we reach the end of the hall that I realize where we are. We're at my old cell.

There is a pristine white cot in the corner of the room. On the floor beside it is a slice of bread and a glass of water. Wills leads me in and sets me down on the cot. He hands me the bread and water.

I am thoroughly confused.

"What are you doing?" I ask skeptically. No one here has ever showed me such kindness.

He stares at me for a moment before answering. "I don't want to hurt you Peeta. No one here does. We all value your health and safety."

"Then why have you been torturing me for the past few weeks?"

"Torturing?" he asks incredulously. "No, no, you misunderstand. We were simply trying to help you Peeta. You needed to understand the dire circumstances you are in. You still need to understand. Katniss is not who you think she is—"

"I know," I say.

He stares at me in amazement. "You do?"

I try to nod, but it sends shooting pain all down my back. "Yes," I say. "She's a mutt. She's horrible. She tried to kill me so many times. But I won't let her succeed. In fact, if I ever see her again, I will do everything I can to kill her."

We sit in silence for a few minutes. Then Wills looks at me.

"I see now that you understand."

"Yes."

"Good." With that, he walks out of my cell, slamming the door shut behind him.


End file.
